By Lee Steele

The Wadsworth Atheneum’s paintings and sculptures make up a pretty straightforward art collection. Or do they?

The United States’ first selfguided LGBTQ art trail takes a look at the Hartfordbased museum’s art, but through a distinctly different lens.

The concept comes from the British Museum in London and the Prado in Madrid. The “Out On View” trail covers 16 pieces spread throughout the Wadsworth.

The Wadsworth has a particularly rich LGBTQ collection, it turns out. This is partly due to the influence of the man who was its director many decades ago.

“I had read about Arthur Everett ‘Chick’ Austin, a prominent gay director of the Atheneum from the 1920s to the 1940s,” says Andrew Lear, a Harvard professor who curated the content into multiple realworld trails using podcaster tools. “I knew he was an important figure in the gay American art world of the prewar era, so I expected there to be good representation at the museum, especially for that time period. I was surprised, however, that he had also collected major works on LGBT themes throughout Western art history. The museum truly has an amazing collection which speaks to themes of gender, sexuality, ethnic diversity and women’s history.”

Indeed, Austin created a connection between the Wadsworth and a number of prominent LGBTQ artists of his day while also purchasing a number of homoerotic works for the collection from earlier periods.

That’s what makes the Wadsworth an ideal museum for the country’s first LGBTQ trail, which can be explored in person or at tap.thewadsworth.org.

The Wadsworth, at 600 Main St., was founded in 1842 and is home to nearly 50,000 works of art

Contributed photos Classicist, historian and museum tour guide professor Andrew Lear and his team curated content into audio art trails. Below, the tour addresses the homoerotic elements of Marsden Hartley’s “Down East Young Blades” and Caravaggio’s “Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy.”